


i wanna be your endgame

by grizzly28



Category: Bridgerton (TV), Bridgerton Series - Julia Quinn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:49:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29709114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grizzly28/pseuds/grizzly28
Summary: Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington have been best friends for years. They saw each other grew, not only in their personal lives, but also in their big reputations as two of the most well known Londoners on the internet. Everything is amazing, except for the fact that Colin is in love with her and haven't had the courage to declare his feelings yet.His younger sister Hyacinth - who loves a little chaos - decides do give a little push to see if both, his brother and her (hopefully) soon to be sister-in-law get their heads out of their asses and do something about their very mutual feelings.
Relationships: Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington
Comments: 86
Kudos: 227





	1. knew her when i was young

**Author's Note:**

> First things first, I am obsessed with connecting Polin to Taylor Swift's songs and I have been listening to Reputation on repeat for the past month. It has been wild lol. And after seeing Nicola take over London Fashion Week's Instagram, I wanted to write something where Pen is a lifestyle and fashion icon. I just know that a modern Penelope would be an amazing IT Girl. I also wanted to write a simping Colin, so yeah, that's what came out of it.
> 
> This story won't be long and I already have 2 more chapters written. I guess I'm close to finishing it, so I would guess 4 or 5 chapters? Anyway, I just wanted to write a friends to lovers story without angst because I needed to create serotonin to myself.
> 
> I don't have a beta and English is not my first language, so let me know if something is confusing. I am trying my best and I hope you enjoy it!

Colin didn't know how or when it had happened. He truly didn't. But he also didn't care. Being in love with Penelope was one of the most amazing feelings he had ever felt. 

Except for the tiny detail that he hadn't told her yet. 

They have known each other for more than a decade, but they have been friends, best friends if he's truly being honest, for 5 years or so. They were so different, but yet so similar that he felt no one understood him better than his Pen. 

He always admired her kindness and intelligence, but in the past few years he started to notice that there was more to the feeling. Something deeper and stronger. Sometimes it was like she had her own magnetic field made especially to attract him and only him. 

Besides being such a good person, she is gorgeous. Her beauty actually makes him want to watch her forever. She had always been pretty, even through her weird years during high school - there was just something about her that had always fascinated him. But after she moved away from her mother and started to live the way she wanted, Penelope found her own style and bloomed.

Even though he was travelling for most of her college years, Colin could sense how stronger and authentic Penelope was becoming, he saw it every time he came back to London. Her real personality shined so much that he wasn't even surprised when she came out as the name behind Lady Whistledown - England's most popular lifestyle and fashion blog.

The blog started with a simple concept: to show the world what London's actual lifestyle looked like in the eyes of a young londoner. It was filled with tips about cool and hidden places to visit in the city, new bands and books that deserved attention, and a lot of witty comments about fashion. A lot of people were doing that at the time, but the secrecy of the owner's identity added a hype to the whole thing. 

And after Lady Whistledown gained a face, its beautiful owner's face to be more specific, it blew up. Colin never got to know what had actually happened, but the day Penelope decided to own her popularity she had been to a horrible lunch meeting with her mother and sisters. 

For a miracle of cinrcunstances, Colin was in London when everything happened and that day was engraved in this mind, he could never forget how sad the tiny girl seemed. They weren't exactly close by then, but he knew that Portia Featherington always took pleasure in subtly offending her daughter in every way possible and that day must have been the last straw. 

He was sure hwe witch of a mother had humiliated her, but that was probably the last push she needed to free herself from all that toxicity and be who she was always predestined to be.

The next day LW website had an article where Penelope introduced herself, saying that she was tired of hiding and that in order to be more realistic, she needed everyone to know who she was. Needless to say the post went viral, especially after someone on Buzzfeed made an article about it, praising Pen's work so far and stating that she was set to be an IT Girl based on the style she had and the aesthetic of her personal Instagram.

The blog grew a lot and Pen got tons of followers who wanted to learn from her, be like her, or just see what she had to say or show them. It felt like everyone was curious to see what the mind behind LW had to offer, and sooner than later, Penelope Featherington became her own brand, being considered one of the big names in London's fashion and lifestyle industry - besides being well known for strongly advocating for mental health, feminism, LGBTQ+ community, and body positivity.

Colin couldn't help but to admire her. Like he was doing at this exact moment. In his defense, how couldn't he, when she was looking so happy and beautiful around his family. Ok, she was also looking hot as fuck in the green bathing suit she was wearing. So much so that made a quick mental note to thank Eloise for choosing to have a pool party celebration for her 27th birthday and give him the opportunity to admire her.

“Stop staring at her and go do something,” Kate broke his line of thought elbowing him before plopping herself on a chair by his side. She and his brother Anthony were the only ones that Colin had actually confessed his true feelings, after a drunk night out a few months ago. Not that he didn't think that his entire family already knew it by now, but they were still the only ones who had actually heard him saying "I am in love with Penelope Featherington".

Anthony sat next to his wife before turning his attention to Colin, who was still staring at the short redhead woman who lived rent free in his mind. “It's not like she doesn't like you back. I don't know how many times I have told you this before, but I am 100% sure that Penelope is interested in you”, the older Bridgerton smirked before adding “don't ask me why, I don't know what she could see in you when she can clearly do better”.

“Fuck off you two”, Colin replied, wondering why on earth he had decided to tell them about Penelope. They weren't exactly subtle, and the innuendos they would drop every single time Pen was mentioned in a conversation could be uncomfortable, even for Colin. 

Not that he didn't use every opportunity to bluntly flirt with Penelope, but his brother and sister-in-law were on another level. Which reminded him of Kate's latest action, earlier this morning, when she tagged him in Pen's recent post alongside a smirking devil emoji.

“You have to stop tagging me in her posts and using suspicious emojis. Both of us have a lot going on online and I don't exactly need the internet getting in the way of this”, Colin said with an accusing tone. Kate was grinning and ready to give a cheeky reply when Hyacinth screamed and ran towards Penelope and Eloise.

“OHMYGODPENELOPEDIDYOUSEEIT?” the younger Bridgerton was literally jumping and speaking so fast that no one could understand what she was saying. “Calm down and breathe”, Eloise made a face while trying to distinguish the words her younger sister was spilling at Penelope.

“You can't ask me to calm down when Penelope just hit 20 million followers on Instagram. 20 MILLION. Besides that the british and the american Vogue accounts just reposted her latest picture and congratulated her. Oh, and they tagged LW as well. YOU ARE A FUCKING ICON PENELOPE”, Hyacinth screamed the last sentence before hugging a very embarrassed Featherington, while both Violet and Anthony scolded Hyacinth for cursing. 

Colin couldn't hold back his smile and moved closer to his sisters and the love of his life. “Well, well, well, so we have a goddess between us, simple humans,” he said watching her going red, something that pleased him very much.

“Oh shut up, Colin. You have millions of followers and you are the host of the biggest cooking and travel show on Netflix”, she answered while Colin successfully tugged Hyacinth away and took the moment to hug his Penelope, congratulating her newest achievement. 

It was true. While she was making her name in the fashion and lifestyle side of the internet, Colin was a big persona in the travel and cooking area. He had started to document his travels online when he was 22, always adding pictures from different places, information about the culture and food recipes from all around the world. 

With more than 10 million followers on Instagram, he scored a contract as the presenter of “Somebody Feed Colin”, a show where he would travel the globe and try food from all around. It was much more than he had ever dreamed to achieve and he was proud of it.

But he couldn't lie and say that all the fans were a surprise, after all he was a Bridgerton, and his dad, Edmund Bridgerton, was one of the biggest british actors Hollywood has ever seen. Of Course Colin was proud of himself and put a lot of effort into his work, but he knew that he would have followers even before he wanted them.

“It doesn't really count”, he said with his face buried in her bright red hair. “A lot of my following came from my father's name, which is okay. You, on the other hand, did everything by yourself. You are truly a fucking icon, Pen”, he stated looking down at her wide eyes and red cheeks. He wondered if it would be a bad idea to kiss her right now.

“Of course she is, Penelope is a fucking queen and I've been telling her that since we we were 16! Now let her go so I can hug my best friend” Eloise interrupted and inserted herself between them before he could protest. Colin had changed his mind, maybe he would kill Eloise.

In a few seconds they were surrounded by the rest of the Bridgerton family wanting to congratulate Pen on her biggest achievement, so Colin stepped aside to let her have her deserved praise.

-

The day went on and Colin had decided to enjoy the hot London day in the pool when he noticed a very dry Penelope talking to his younger sister. “Penelope. Pen. My tiny little P. Come here for a second, will you?” he called for her from the corner of the pool. The redhead looked at him and shook her head before adding she didn't want to get in the pool. “And don't call me little P, it sounds like you're calling me a pony”, she added making a face.

He laughed and took her answer as a challenge. Instead of replying, Colin swam to the other side of the pool, pushed himself out of the water and made his way to Penelope, who had her back to him. A great back with a great ass he thought to himself.

Hyacinth noticed her brother coming toward them and suppressed a smile. With a tiny smile to his sister, Colin hugged Penelope from behind, managed to get her off of the ground and ran towards the pool. Penelope screeched and shook her body to make him let go of her, which did nothing, except arouse Colin. Their lack of clothes, and the fact that she was rubbing herself against his wet body were creating an interesting friction between them. 

Colin stopped at the edge of the pool and put Pen on the ground, pulling her closer to him to make sure she wouldn't run away. “It's a pool party Pen, I can't let you go home before you get wet”, Colin whispered to her ear fully aware of the double meaning of his words. 

He smiled proudly when he heard a surprised gasp and felt her body shiver.

Hyacinth had an amused look while watching the scene in front of her. Glancing around she saw everyone pretending they weren't looking, but paying close attention to the exchange happening by the pool. They were all thinking if the couple by the pool would finally get their heads off of their asses and do something about their - very mutual - feelings.

The younger Bridgerton turned her attention back to the pair before walking to her right side and noticing that from this angle it was possible to see their faces. Grinning almost diabolically, Hyacinth turned around and started to take selfies, having two of the most known internet Londoners as her background. 

A few moments later, Colin jumped in the pool still holding Penelope in his arms.


	2. big reputations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone said on twitter that they love imagining the conversations on the Bridgerton group chat and I had already written this chapter lol. 
> 
> Honestly, this story is chaotic hahaha anyway I am writing something that makes me laugh alone in my room, so yeah.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Hyacinth has clout. Not as large as Colin's or Penelope's, but she has a few million followers on Instagram and is a queen when it comes to Tik Tok. Being a very smart girl, she understands that a lot of people followed her to try and catch any gossip about her family and friends - especially if the friend was a certain redhead influencer (one she hoped would become her sister-in-law soon).

Having grown up in the spotlight because of her dad, she knew perfectly how the internet worked. Her mom and 7 older siblings also didn't let her forget that they needed to be careful about every single thing they did or said, online or offline, in order to keep their lives private and peaceful. 

That means no one could say that she didn't know what she was doing when she posted that selfie the night before. She was completely aware that a picture with Colin being very cuddly with Penelope - like having his head bent to her ear and a smile plastered on his face while she looked very red and surprised - would cause a big talk. 

Before uploading the selfie she thought to herself that both, her brother and Penelope, were acting stupid for far too long. Even their followers had already questioned if “Polin” was a thing or not, since they interacted online a lot and seemed to always be together whenever Colin was in London. It was time to do something more drastic, she had decided.

Hyacinth wanted chaos. And chaos she created.

-

Colin, who had just woken up, had a puzzled look while holding his phone. The fact that there were more than 100 messages in his family group chat wouldn't catch his attention if he hadn't seen his manager asking if he wanted to release a statement in the preview of the last text. That definitely meant something weird was going on.

He decided to open his family gc first. If anything bad had happened, at least he would get the news from his family. 

**the alphabet gc**

**_fran:_ ** _did anyone see twitter today already? *eyes emoji*_

 **_hya:_ ** _*angel emoji*_

 **_eloise:_ ** _you do know they'll kill you right?_

 **_kate:_ ** _no they won't, Hya is my baby and i'll protect her_

 **_kate:_ ** _plus, she did what had to be done, i am tired of them being dumb_

 **_anthony:_ ** _what happened?_

 **_greg:_ ** _go see twitter_

 **_greg:_ ** _oh yeah, you're old and don_ ' _t have one_

 **_simon:_ ** _*crying laughing emoji*_

 **_anthony:_ ** _respect me?????_

 **_daphne:_ ** _where's colin? he can't possibly be sleeping while him and penelope are breaking the internet_

 **_anthony:_ ** _will someone tell me WHAT IS GOING ON?_

 **_hya:_ ** _no need to use caps, you boomer_

 **_greg:_ ** _boomer *skull emoji*_

 **_anthony:_ ** _i will cut your allowance_

 **_fran:_ ** _*sends print screen of Hya's insta story*_

 **_fran:_ ** _*sends print screen of twitter trending topics*_

 **_daphne:_ ** _what about pen? @eloise did she see it?_

 **_eloise:_ ** _oh she did and she said i'll only have 6 siblings next time she sees Hya_

 **_hya:_ ** _*eye rolling emoji*_

 **_fran:_ ** _i just wanna say that i am a polin stan *heart eyes emoji*_

 **_eloise:_ ** _everyone is a polin stan in this family_

 **_anthony:_ ** _what the hell is a polin stan?_

 **_kate:_ ** _i thought i married a smart man… stop talking and i'll explain later_

 **_Violet:_ ** _Hyacinth Bridgerton, what have you done?_

 **_benedict:_ ** _*zipper-mouth emoji*_

 **_Violet:_ ** _Well done, baby girl!_

 **_anthony:_ ** _MOTHER_

Colin was laughing at Hyacinth calling Anthony a boomer when he saw the print screens Francesca sent. “Shit,” he said out loud in his bedroom while opening twitter to verify that, in fact, his name was trending, as well as Penelope's and the word Polin. He wasn't stupid, he knew people were already shipping them. To be 100% honest he felt some kind of pride in knowing that.

But it was weird seeing his picture with Penelope all over the internet. It looked too intimate to be online and it made him think how close he and Pen actually were in the first place. Colin wondered if his sister had listened to what he had said to Kate yesterday about not wanting random people to get into his business and decided to do the exact opposite. She fucking put them in the spot light. 

While contemplating ways of killing letter H, he refocused his attention on Twitter. The post he was currently looking at had a bunch of pictures of him and Penelope through the years of their friendship. Looking at that put a smile on his face and made his heart beat a little faster. 

The tweet right under that was the picture Hyacinth had posted with the words “my new parents are hot as fuck”. Looking at himself tangled with Penelope on the screen he could only agree that they were pretty hot together. 

But it was the look on Penelope's flushed face that caught his attention the most. He knew he had some effect over her, especially considering he was unable to stop himself from flirting with her. She always blushed and he loved that. But the picture captured something more between them, he was sure it did. Was it possible that she wanted him as much as he wanted her?

Before thinking any further and with a big grin on his face, Colin printed the screen, opened his messages again, and ignoring everyone, sent a quick text to Pen instead.

_**colin:** *sends print screen from Twitter* _

_**colin:** good morning, my beautiful and better half of polin _

_**colin:** quick question: when did we have kids? _

_**colin:** and why are we missing the part where we actually make them? *smirk emoji* _

-

On the other side of the city, Penelope was literally hiding in the restroom while she attended London Fashion Week. She woke up at 5:30 am with her phone blowing up with notifications from every single person she knew and almost had a heart attack when she saw 10 missed calls from Eloise, who apparently had another insomnia episode.

She immediately opened her best friend text messages to get a grip on what was happening and was met with the madness news involving her name and a certain Colin Bridgerton. “Don't freak out,” Eloise had texted her a bunch of times, assuring her that at the end, both of them were having an insane amount of good press.

Penelope rang Eloise who picked up almost immediately. “Good press my ass, Eloise. I have to go out and face a bunch of reporters today. I was supposed to talk about fashion and not if I am involved with your brother. I WILL KILL HYACINTH”.

“Oh, come on Pen, it's not so bad. People are loving the idea of you together and let's be honest, it's time for you to act and finally…”, Penelope hung up on her. She was running around her apartment trying to get ready to leave and meet her glam team, while trying very hard not to lose her mind. She didn't have time to have that conversation with Eloise at the moment.

The redhead spent the first few hours of that insane Monday morning trying to figure out how to act when the time to face the press arrived. Sure enough there were fans and paparazzi yelling all sorts of things about her and Colin. 

_“Are you really dating?”_

_“I always knew Polin was a thing”_

_“Since when are you a couple?”_

_“Will you be traveling with him for the next season of his show?”_

_“I bet this is a publicity stunt.”_

_“Is it true that you're planning on elope in Santorini?”_

She could feel her brain turning into mush and needed to hide for a while. That's how she ended sitting on the fancy restroom floor of the venue that LFW was happening, her Twitter opened on her phone, and trying to decide who she was going to kill first, Colin or Hyacinth. Colin for making her feel things and Hyacinth for posting a picture where it was very clear that she was feeling said things.

The way she and Colin had been captured in the photo felt too personal. Hyacinth was smiling and making a peace sign to the camera, while they were having a moment by the pool. A moment that two people who are simply best friends probably shouldn't be having. Just thinking about the feeling of his hands on her body and his voice whispering “I can't let you go home before you get wet,” made her flush all over again, she knew him way too well not to capture the double meaning in his voice.

Colin has always been a flirtatious person. It's not even like he did it on purpose, it was just who he was, and that's one of the reasons she had a big crush on him when she was a teenager. Yes, it seemed cliche that she had a crush on her best friend's handsome older brother, but he was so charming and always very nice to her... she couldn't help the feeling.

As Penelope got older the feeling shifted and she knew it was not only a crush, it was something deeper. However, they gradually became more friendly towards each other, something that made her push her romantic feelings towards him to a secret and protected place in her heart. 

The bond she formed with Colin was very important for her. They would talk almost everyday, even when he was travelling for long periods of time around the world. He would share little things that made him think about her, hidden places he was sure she would love, food recipes he loved so much that he wanted to recreate so she could try it, and all sorts of lovely things.

But they also talked a lot about the pressure of having big reputations and being known worldwide because of their work. He understood her better than anyone else and agreed that their lives were awesome, but it could be overwhelming. 

That's why she valued their friendship too much to let illusions of being something more to get in the way. 

She could feel, however, that things started to change a few years ago. Their friendship was steady and very strong, and it certainly gave Colin more space to flirt freely with her, but she had noticed that he was getting more and more assertive. On her part, she was so scared of screwing things up that she didn't actually let herself take him too seriously or read too much into his innuendos. 

But in the past five months, the time that Colin had actually stayed in London without plans to travel so soon, things seemed more intense. They saw each other every other day and she couldn't stop wondering what he was trying to do. She knew deep in her heart that he would never mess up their friendship. "Was it possible that the feeling was mutual?" she had thought every time they were together.

Her overthinking was interrupted when she saw Colin's messages pop up on her screen. She gasped a “he did not” out loud and felt herself starting to hyperventilate. He was definitely trying to give her a heart attack mentioning that they should be making babies. 

Penelope decided to ignore his texts and continued to look through the mentions on the Polin tag on Twitter. People were analyzing old interactions they had and a lot of users already had pictures of them together as their icons. 

She knew it was time to stop looking through the mentions when she saw a link to a Polin fanfic. “Already?” she thought trying to decide if she wanted to open it or not. She had been the biggest fanfic fangirl in her teenage years and read way too many Twilight stories to know exactly the type of things people could write - actually, she had written some of those stories herself. So it wasn't a surprise when curiosity won over her and Pen found herself scanning the words of a story with a graphic pool sex scene.

Feeling herself getting hotter by the second, the redhead woman blocked her phone and decided it was time to stop hiding and go do her job. Forcing herself to stand up, she looked at her image in the mirror and saw how flushed she looked, regretting the decision to open the damn fanfic link. And then she remembered Colin's message.

For once, she decided Colin deserved a little bit of his own medicine. She replied to his message before taking a deep breath and leaving the restroom to face the reporters outside.

 **_pen:_ ** _*sends fanfic link*_

 **_pen:_ ** _should we be making babies like this or do you have any other ideas? *smirk emoji*_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I laughing again because I added a fanfic in my fanfic? Yes. No regrets. 
> 
> Just an observation: I wrote an entire chapter and delete it because I was unhappy lol. I think this fic has 4 parts and Ill be back with more eventually. 
> 
> See you soon, friends :)


	3. i don’t wanna hurt you

_Colin moved his lips to Penelope's neck, His hands squeezed one of her breasts as he continued to thrust his hips against hers, slowly and steady._

_“Colin," Penelope whined, pulling his hair a little more forceful "I need you to go faster” she added, tightening her legs around his waist, using her other hand to reach between their bodies and touch herself right above where they were connected._

_“Pen, are you touching yourself while I fuck you?” Colin groaned and she moaned in response. He took the opportunity to kiss her lips again, holding himself steady at the edge of the pool to increase his speed, and squeezing her ass to bring her closer with every push inside her._

Colin stopped reading. 

He blinked several times to try and understand if he had entered a parallel universe. There was no way Penelope had actually sent that to him. 

To say that he was shocked was an understatement. He thought she would only tell him to shut up and that they needed to figure out how to address whatever was happening involving their names. But she had not only replied his bold remark about making babies, but also sent him a very explicit content from the website “iwritefanfics.com”. He knew what a fanfic was because one time, many years ago, he heard Penelope and Eloise talking about it and they explained the whole concept to him. But he would never, not even in a milion years, imagine that this was the kind of thing people were writing. 

He was slightly aware that he should be creeped out to acknowledge that people were imagining and writing about him fucking Penelope in a pool. He knew he should be feeling weird about it, but in all honesty he was turned on and his brain was foggy with vivid images of what he had just read.

Colin was aching to know how it would feel to actually be able to touch her curves, kiss her mouth, put his fingers between her red curls, while he sucked on her nip...

His attention snapped back to reality when he saw Eloise's name on his phone's screen. He hasn't spoken to his family yet and, to be honest, he wasn't planning to do so anytime soon. Having the internet making speculations about his love life was already very overwhelming, but the Bridgerton clan would definitely make it worse.

But he also knew that out of all of his siblings, Eloise wouldn't let him alone, especially on this.

“What?”, he answered unenthusiastically. 

“Finally! What took you so long to pick the damn phone? Tell me you are using your brain to figure it out how to solve this once and for all. Look, I know that maybe Hyacinth went a little bit overboard, but at least this will force you to have an actual conversation about your damn feelings. I mean, Colin it's time to tell Penelope how you actually feel, it's been too long and I am so tired of watching you acting like a couple and not being one. Not that I want to see you two acting like an actual couple when I'm around. EW, that's gross, you’re already insufferable like this, imagine when you actually start to date”, Eloise finished her rambling comments with a gag noise.

Colin rolled his eyes at his sister's last statement, but couldn't refrain himself from asking. “Am I that obvious?” 

“What?”

“About Penelope. Am I that obvious?”

“Colin, you spend more time with her than with anyone else. I should know, she's MY best friend, but you are always there whenever I try to see or talk to her.”

“She's my best friend too, Eloise. Don't start with…”

“Yeah, but you also want to sleep with her, don't you?”

“Really, Eloise?”

“Yes, really. But what I am trying to say is that I don't understand why you're not doing anything about it. You look like you could kiss the ground she walks on. The only person who didn't notice it yet is Penelope herself because she's as dumb as you”.

Colin let out a long sigh at his sister's last statement. “I do love her, but I don't want to screw up.”

“And you won't. If I wasn't 100% sure that you would never screw this up I wouldn't be here encouraging you to speak about how you're feeling. You are my brother and I love you, but you know I would murder anyone who hurts Penelope... that doesn't exclude you dear brother. And I am not planning to kill you, mom would be very upset if I did that.”

“Pen's too important for me and I don't want to lose her altogether because she doesn't feel the same about me.”

“What on earth makes you think she doesn't feel the same? Have you ever noticed the way she looks at you? I know I call you dumb all the time, but I didn't know you were dumb and blind. Just- for fucks sake, Colin, go do something about it,” Eloise hung up not waiting for a response.

Colin exhaled, he hated to admit that Eloise was right, but she was. He was acting like a stupid little boy who didn't know what to do with his own feelings and nothing good was going to come out of that.

It was time to act and be a man. Finally.

He thought about Penelope being scrutinized during LFW and winced a little bit. She was definitely having a hard time dealing with everything by herself, while he was hiding in the privacy of his apartment.

With a new resolution, Colin texted his career manager saying that he didn't want to give any statements, but needed help to get Penelope's assistant contact.

He had a plan in his mind. He only hoped that the woman he loved wouldn't kill him after what he was about to do.

_-_

Penelope was drained. She had spent the rest of her day dodging every single question about Colin and their supposed relationship, something that proved to be emotionally tiring. She couldn't wait to go home and hide from all of this madness - at least for the rest of the day, afterall it was only Monday and she would have to do everything again for the rest of London Fashion Week.

After having hid herself in the bathroom earlier, she turned off her phone and gave it to Taylor, her assistant, saying that it was best if she didn't see anything else on Twitter while attending the event. 

She had no idea of the craziness that was happening online, but could sense that her assistant had some new information. Halfway through one of the shows on the runway, she noticed Taylor giggling and eyeing her in a very suspicious way. 

Penelope had tried to ask what was going on and even demanded her phone back, but Taylor dismissed her with a simple “everything is fine and you need to calm down”. 

When Pen was finally free to leave the event, her assistant approached her with a rather mischievous smile. “Are you ready to go?” she asked in a tone that made Penelope even more suspicious.

“Why do you have that smile on your face?” Penelope asked while Taylor pushed her through the back exit, where the cars - as well as a herd of paparazzi - were waiting to get the final shots of all the important names attending LFW.

She saw the exact moment that Taylor looked to her left, eyes widened and a big grin spread through her face. “I hope you have a great rest of your day, Pen”, she heard while turning to see what her assistant was staring at and going instantly agape.

She was frozen in place while her brain tried to make sense of the image she had in front of her.

Colin was there.

Holding a bouquet of flowers.

Leaning against a limousine.

A freaking limousine.

And smiling at her.

She knew she needed to move, but she couldn't remember how her body worked, so when she felt Taylor starting to push her into Colin's direction, she was a little bit startled. “Have fun and see you Wednesday” her assistant said, squeezing her shoulders and leaving with another giggle.

Colin immediately held one of her hands while smiling down at her - she barely reached his shoulders normally, and the high heels she was wearing didn't actually do much to change that.

“Hi Pen,” Colin said with a soft smile, handing her the flowers he was holding. Yellow daisies.

The first time Colin had given her yellow daisies was for her 18th birthday. She thought he was making fun of her because she had just gotten rid of all the yellow clothes she used to wear - forced by her mother. 

The hurt in his eyes and his somber tone made it clear that she was very wrong. “They made me think of you, plus I think you always looked lovely in yellow,” he had pointed out.

Since that very first episode, almost 10 years ago, Colin had given her yellow daisies every single birthday. Even when he was traveling he would make sure that the flowers were delivered to her.

Penelope took the bouquet with a small smile, even though her senses weren't still completely back. Her mind and her heart were racing.

“JUST KISS HIM ALREADY,” someone yelled, and suddenly she remembered that they were, in fact, in a very public situation. She blushed furiously and went inside the limousine with Colin following her immediately.

Once inside the car, Colin confirmed with the driver that they should head to Brockenhurst, a village two hours away from London, where his family had a hidden place, before closing the privacy barrier between them and the driver.

“What? Colin, I can't go that far away. I have appearances for London Fashion Week tomorrow and I can't simply not show up” Penelope protested trying to figure out a way to talk to the driver.

Colin took a deep breath. “I asked Taylor if it was possible to clean your agenda for tomorrow... and she did it," Colin started saying carefully, observing Penelope's expression morph from concern to a slightly angry and surprised one. “Don't be mad at her. I actually begged her to help me. And I know I had no rights, but I needed to do this. Besides, Taylor told me that none of the designers from tomorrow are really your target so one of the creators on your blog could cover you for the day,” he added hurriedly, trying really hard not to make her more upset.

“Good thing you know you had no rights. This is my job, Colin. You can't just ask my assistant to clear my agenda. That's not how it works”, Penelope replied feeling very frustrated and very tired at the same time. “That's why she said ‘see you Wednesday’," she said, checking her pockets and her tiny purse "Ugh, where's my phone? I need to change this”.

“Er, I- I also asked her to keep your phone”.

“COLIN,” Penelope shrieked in response, dropping her head to her knees mumbling something about the absurd level of audacity that ran in the Bridgerton family.

Colin was trying not to laugh to avoid making her even more upset. They still had a long journey ahead of them and he wanted to try and make her feel less stressed. He decided to try and amuse her with some things he had brought for their journey, and grabbed the backpack and the cooler that were on the seat in front of them.

Penelope could feel he was moving and angled her head to see what he was doing. She saw him unpack a bag of her favorite chips, two small bottles of her favorite lemonade, and a container from her favorite bakery.

Now, she was the one trying very hard not to smile. He knew her too damn well and came prepared. She cracked and gave him a smile when he stuffed his mouth with chips and used his fake innocent voice to ask if she wanted some. 

“Thanks,” she said, grabbing a few triangles of Doritos and eating quietly for some time. Her gaze wandered to the flowers next to her and she exhaled a little bit. “I- thank you for the flowers and the food. That's very thoughtful of you”.

“Anything for you, Pen,” he smiled in that crooked way that always made her stomach flutter and her heart skip a beat. He passed her the container from the best bakery in London - in her opinion- and she wasn't surprised when she saw her favorite type of mini eclairs inside of it. He really knew what he was doing.

She took one but didn't bite into it immediately. Colin was looking at her with such a soft gaze that made her insides go into a frenzy. “What is... why did you... what exactly are you doing, Colin? You know, with kidnapping, and feeding me, and everything?”

Colin laughed a little. He figured that if she was making small jokes, she wasn't so mad at him. “I know you had a rough day, so I wanted to make something nice, and get you out of the eye of the hurricane for a while,” he exhaled and looked into her eyes, before adding “and then talk”.

Talk. She knew they needed to have a serious conversation, not only on how to address the Polin situation, but to actually understand what they were doing. He was her best friend, that's for sure, but best friends aren't supposed to joke about making babies together, much less send each other spicy writing about them. She wasn’t ready for that talk yet. 

Penelope moved her gaze from his eyes to the mini eclair she was holding and finally took a bite. She couldn't help closing her eyes or the little moan that escaped her lips after taking in the perfect mix of dough, cream and chocolate bliss.

What Penelope didn't expect was to get a reaction from Colin, who breathed a low “fuck” and went red. 

She looked back at him with wide eyes and could feel herself getting just as red as him.

The entire atmosphere had shifte. 

They spent a while staring at each other, with Colin clearly switching his gaze between her eyes and her mouth. Penelope on her side, decided to test his reactions by putting the rest of the eclair in her mouth and licking her fingers, while tilting her head and looking at him.

His green eyes went even wider, as he coughed a little bit and shifted uncomfortably on his side of the seat looking down at his watch. “I think we’ll arrive in an hour or so,” was his way to cover his awkwardness. 

Penelope took the opportunity to look out the window and take in the view, instead of keep thinking about the intense moment she had just shared with Colin. Even though there was heavy traffic, they were already out of the craziness from London.

The craziness of London, she thought again. Penelope's eyes widened with a new realization. “Oh my gosh, Colin, you showed up in a limousine with a bouquet of flowers to pick me up in front of paparazzi and fans. Do you understand how crazier things are going to get? We’re probably trending on Twitter again. No one will ever believe when we say we are not dating” she added bringing her hands to her hair in a horrified tone that wounded Colin a little.

“I don't want people believing that we are not dating”, he told her with a frown, grabbing her hands to stop her from messing her curls.

“But we are not dating,” she answered with a quizzical look on her face. Colin was making no sense to her at his point.

“Yet. We are not dating yet,” he told her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

For the millionth time on that day, Penelope felt her mouth open in disbelief. “What? What kind of joke is this, Colin?” she frowned looking at his hand encapsulating her own “this isn't funny.”

“Pen,” he started in a desperate tone, “you know me. I am not joking, I would never joke about this, I would never- I- I don’t want to hurt you”.

Colin touched her chin to make her look up to him, so she could see his eyes, “I want to make you happy. I know I'm an idiot and I've been flirting with you a lot, but I’m not doing this only for fun. I mean, yeah, seeing you flush everytime I say double meaning stuff is pretty fucking hot... oh shit, not the point right now. I- Pen, I have feelings for you. No, that’s not enough, I love you, I am in love with you. I really want you to…”

Colin stopped talking when Penelope kissed him.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Colin is taking action, but Pen is the real baddie in this house.
> 
> And, uh, yeah... DON’T KILL ME. I couldn't resist stoping at this point. Plus, I feel like a lot happened in this chapter and I have more plans for the next one hihi.
> 
> Oh, and did you noticed that I reread Romancing Mr. Bridgerton in between writing? I also couldn't resist using some more TS references, so yeah.
> 
> Let me know what think :)


	4. i wanna be your first string

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone said that was waiting impatiently for the smut, so yeah, ask and you shall receive. Read at your own risk.
> 
> Enjoy :B

Penelope was in a frenzy. The one guy she always dreamed to be with had just said he loved her. That he was in love with her. She couldn't hold the impulse that took over her body, so she just kissed him. Colin was right, Penelope knew him and she knew that he would never say such things, mess up their friendship, if he wasn't 100% sure. 

“Does that mean you love me back?” Colin asked when they took a moment to breathe. His tone was cheerful and happy, but it still had a hint of doubt. He had loved her for so long, he still couldn't believe she actually returned his feelings.

“Colin, I should be asking if I am not dreaming,” Penelope said, trying to move closer, she needed to get as close as possible to him. Although she had tried not to imagine being in this situation with her best friend, she couldn't deny that she had dreamed of doing this - kissing him, touching him - way too many times in the past decade.

Once she succeeded straddling his lap, Colin gave her a broad smile illuminating his whole face. She mimicked him, holding his face with both of her hands, and caressing his cheeks. “I have been in love with you since I was a teenager”.

Colin held her hands and placed a kiss in her knuckles. “I am so sorry for not saying anything before, I was just… I was scared. But I want this, I want to be with you, I want you to be my endgame, Pen”.

“I love you,” she said before kissing him again. This time with more passion and emotion than the first time. She moved her hands to his hair and pulled a little bit, sending a rush through Colin's body, who squeezed her hips harder, earning a gasp from her.

Years of wanting was starting to burst in form of excitement inside both of them.

Thinking about the words she had just told him Colin grinned. He would not resist the urge to provoke her a little bit between their kisses. “You said something about dreaming, huh?”

Funnily enough, the thought about telling Colin about her dreams made her hotter. She had a feeling it would mess with him and only imagining his reaction was giving her thrills. 

Penelope gave him a crooked smile and kissed his temple. “Oh love, there were so many dreams through the years,” she moved her lips to kiss his nose. “In some of those dreams we were just living like a loving couple, you know, with holding hands and kissing gently and doing romantic stuff”. 

Penelope shifted a little bit in his lap, still moving her lips through his face, placing a kiss on his jaw “and then, some other dreams…” she finally put her lips on his, and stared into his eyes, using a fake innocent tone “...some other dreams our lips and hands were all over each other”.

Colin felt all the air leave his body, he knew exactly what she meant. Her blush, that now descended from her cheeks to her cleavage, also were a big indicative of what she actually meant.

She took the opportunity of him being in shock, moved her hands down his abdomen, and reached to the hem of his shirt to touch his skin. That seemed to snap Colin back to reality, after a moan escaped his mouth when her fingers touched his skin.

“Who are you and have you done with my sweet innocent, Penelope? First that damn fanfic, now this?” Colin's fingers were trying to undo the buttons of her coat dress as fast as possible. 

She chuckled, wrestling him a little bit, and pulling his shirt over his head. “You don't really know all my sides”, she kissed his neck digging her nails on his back. 

“I certainly didn't know you were such a tease, Penelope,” he finally succeeded in opening her dress and was amazed to finally see her beautiful and curvy body in a sheer lacy matching set. He knew he was staring at her, but couldn't help it, she was just too beautiful.

Shifting their positions so she was now laying down on the limo seat and he was hovering over her, he squeezed her breasts. “But if we are going down this lane, you should know that I also have dreams and the most recurrent one is about fucking you in front of a mirror,” he stated before biting one of her nipples through the lace of her bra.

Penelope moaned loudly, moving her hips to try to get some friction. Colin moved one of his legs so his thigh was pressed to Penelope's center, and pushed the straps of her bra down her arms to expose her breasts. “God, you are gorgeous, Pen”.

Colin gently pressed his lips on hers and started to move, leaving a wet trail of kisses from her neck to one of her breasts, where he lightly bit her. One of his hands squeezed her other breast and the other was firmly placed on her hip.

Penelope was in a bliss, basking in Colin's touch on her body. She moved her hands down his chest, but he grabbed her wrists and pinned above her head “right now is all about you, love”.

She sighed but accepted. “I want- need, I need you to touch me”.

She didn't have to say it twice. His hands traveled down her body and he stopped on top of one of her thighs, gently squeezing before covering her center through her underwear. Feeling how hot she was, he quickly moved the piece of fabric to the side and slid one finger through her slit. “Fuck, Pen, you are so wet already”.

She couldn't even answer him, the sensation of his mouth on her nipple, his fingers in her, and his hard member pressed on her thigh was driving her crazy. It was so intense, she was pretty sure she had never felt like this before.

Colin was thinking the same thing and only wished to touch her everywhere. He moved his body, so he could see the movement of his own fingers on her wet spot, using his thumb to stroke her clit.

“Colin,” she said in almost a whisper. Glancing up, he noticed she was looking at him with lust and expectation. He couldn't suppress a smile locking his gaze with hers. He slid one finger inside her slowly. Penelope gasped, a breathy “Oh” slipped through her lips and she pulled his head down to another kiss. Erratic, wet and messy this time. 

He moved his finger a few times, using his thumb to stroke her clit again. He knew she wasn't far away from falling apart by the way her inside was clenching and her body tensed, so he inserted a second finger. 

He moved his mouth to her breasts one more time and sucked hard this time. “You are my happy place,” he murmured against her skin.

And then her body froze. “Oh no,” she said with a worried tone and far away from what Colin wanted to hear. 

Then it hit him, the car had stopped and the engine was turned off. They had arrived at the Bridgerton country house.

“Noooooooo,” Penelope said with a literal whine trying to contain her tears. Colin was still grumbling about “fucking timing” with his face buried between Penelope breasts and his fingers inside her. 

Both of them were now very much aware of the driver's presence in the car. Penelope tried to push Colin from above her, but he wasn't having it.

He needed to see her panting with pleasure, so he smirked before starting to move his fingers in and out of her, pinching one of her nipples and biting the other. “You're gonna have to come for me before we leave this car, Pen.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind Penelope was feeling a little bit ashamed, but the pleasure dominated all her other senses, and after just a few more strokes from Colin's fingers, she came with a loud moan. “Such a good girl,” Colin said licking the fingers that were just in her.

Much to his dismay, he pulled her bra back in place and closed her coat. “Now let's go inside so I can pleasure you again,” he pulled himself up, putting his shirt back and grabbing the stuff he had brought with him.

-

Penelope wasn't sure how she managed to get up, compose herself, and leave the car holding her squashed daisies, but she did it. She avoided making eye contact with the driver, yelling a thank you while running to the house entrance.

The door was unlocked, which didn't really surprise her since Colin apparently had planned everything. She knew the space very well, having been there many times since she was a teenager, so she walked straight to Colin's room.

Outside, the driver himself wasn't even glancing at them and looked like he just wanted to leave as fast as possible. Colin thanked him with a sheepish smile and followed Penelope inside the house. 

He dropped everything he was holding by the entrance and went to the kitchen to get two cups of water and a few cookies that he had asked the house staff to buy, among other things, before telling them to take the rest of the day and the next one off. He needed the house empty for him and Penelope.

He couldn't stop smiling on the way up the stairs. When he reached his bedroom, he placed the cups on top of his dresser and put a cookie in his mouth, still smiling at Penelope, who seemed a little nervous. “Are you okay, love?”

She snorted but was amused “of course you are eating". He shrugged and grabbed another cookie. “I can't believe we did that,'' she said with an embarrassed sigh. They basically had a voyeur during their entire… car adventure.

“I was under the impression that you liked it a lot,” he said, holding one of the water cups in her direction, using the moment to hug her from behind. 

“Shut up,” she said, drinking the water, placing the empty cup back on the dresser next to them, and turning around to hug him. He chuckled and placed a tender kiss on her temple.

They took a moment just holding each other. Colin's chin rested on top of Penelope's messy curls, and she listened to the beat of his heart. “You are perfect,” he murmured, placing a kiss on her head, inhaling the lavender scent on her hair. 

She tilted her head up and kissed him again, giggling when she noticed the taste of the cookies on him. “First it was doritos, now you taste like cookies… that's so you”. 

He laughed, working fast on getting rid of all her clothes. “Perks of kissing me, I only eat delicious delicacies,” and bit her shoulder to prove his point. 

She tried to laugh, but ended up moaning, trying to help him to get rid of his own clothes, walking in the direction of the bed, where they fell together and naked. 

Penelope ended up on top of him and took advantage, skimming her fingers through his torso and finally touching his hard and throbbing member. He hissed. She smiled and pumped him twice before lowering her mouth and licking his tip.

Colin dropped his head on the bed, both hands clasping his bed sheet, speaking through clenched teeth. “Love, if you do this now I'll come in your mouth,” she cocked an eyebrow at him and engulfed him with her mouth, sucking further.

He thought he was about to die. “Penelope, I want to come inside of you and make you come again, I need to- oh fucking hell,” she had just licked the entire length of his member and he was having a hard time to understand why he was trying to convince her to stop.

“Love, this is so damn good. But I- look I'll let you suck my dick again whenever you want, but let me sink in you first”, he was breathing hard and had a difficult time saying the words. He wasn't even sure it was coherent, but it seemed to work since she let him go with a loud pop that almost made him come. She crawled over his body and kissed him, feeling his erection pressed on the inside of her thighs. “Condom?”

Colin was sure he had never moved so fast before. He shifted Penelope's position, pressing her back on the mattress, getting up and walking to where his jeans were, grabbing the packet in his pocket, opening and rolling it before hovering over her again. Positioning himself in her entrance he looked into her eyes once more with all the love he was feeling. “I love you so fucking much, Penelope Featherington,” he said intertwining his fingers with hers, kissing her lips and pushing slowly into her.

They both moaned and took some time to embrace the new level of intimacy. He felt full inside her and she felt tight around him. They felt like a perfect match.

With her legs wrapped around his torso, Colin started to move slowly but picking up a steady pace quickly after she used her free hand to grip his butt. She moaned his name, circling her hips and meeting him each thrust.

He knew he wouldn't last long. His free hand traveled through her body and touched her bundle of nerves again. “With me, Pen” she was clenching around him, making him groan and moan and move faster. When she came again, this time with him inside her, he followed almost immediately.

They took several minutes to recover, and both sighed when Colin pulled from her and got up to go clean himself. Penelope tried to sit on his bed, waiting to use the restroom as well.

When she came back, she laid down and curled next to him, kissing his chest. “I fucking love you too, Colin Bridgerton''.

-

It was several hours after and they were lying naked on his bed. In between making out and having sex again (and again) they had eaten sandwiches that Colin made for them, talked about everything and anything, and officially became a couple.

Penelope was sitting between his legs, looking through his Twitter account. Their names were still trending and the majority of the comments were about their limousine escapade and how sweet it had been. “What can I say, I am very romantic,” he said after reading someone saying that he raised the bar levels of romance for every other man alive.

Penelope rolled her eyes and snorted at her boyfriend's modesty, even though he was right. She was currently looking at the selfie that Hyacinth had posted, the one that pushed them into this. “I can't believe it took us having Hyacinth exposing our life to actually do something. I thought we were smarter?" Penelope said laughing.

“Yeah, I guess she deserves to live after all. And hey, at least we don't have to come up with an announcement about us. We won't have to say anything at all actually," he said massaging her shoulders.

Penelope agreed and sighed, she wasn't thrilled about going back to the rest of LFW on Wednesday, but at least she would have an entire day with Colin before having to face the media again.

Making herself cozier in Colin's embrace she scrunched her nose looking at herself in the picture. “I mean, Hyacinth could at least have picked a better picture, I look like a mess in this one”.

Colin smiled softly, kissing her temple. “Yeah, but you're my mess”. 

-

_5 days later_

The Bridgertons were having another pool party. Violet sent an invitation saying they were to have a celebration lunch right after Colin sent the family group chat a selfie of him kissing Penelope and announcing that she was finally his girlfriend. Gregory was quick to name the get together as “celebrating the fact that Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington aren't so stupid after all”.

There was just a tiny detail: the power couple Polin decided not to attend the family event at all. The message that Colin had just sent read:

 **_colin:_ ** _we love you all, thanks for the party, but we won't be able to go. see you next sunday?_

Needless to say that his family was a little bit shocked. They knew the new couple was inseparable since Monday, but they couldn't even pretend to be normal humans and not rabbits for a few hours?

Hyacinth rolled her eyes and announced to her family. “I told you so. If those two idiots are enjoying their lost time, we won't see them for several weeks, if you know what I mean”, she said in a suggestive tone and wriggling her eyebrows, earning some scolding grumbles from everyone in there. 

Everyone except for Kate, who laughed and high-fived her youngest sister-in-law, the queen of chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you Pen was a baddie 💅 but damn, Colin has game 🤭
> 
> I'll be back soon with the last chapter.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> My inspirations for this were Taylor Swift's End Game (obviously) and the Netflix show "Somebody Feed Phil", a show that it's very Colin to me.
> 
> Find me on twitter on @grizzly284.
> 
> See you soon!


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